Like most gamers, I pine for the days of Car Wars. I was a child of the 80s and I loved, literally loved, Car Wars.
Steve Jackson has yet to fulfill my fantasy of relaunching my beloved motorcycle mayhem and car conundrum role playing, but I can forgive him... for the time...

Recently, SJG brought out Castellan, an area control game that is light
(literally), easy to learn, and fun for the whole family! So tonight, NinjaZach and I decided to play around with our new camera and film a game in stop motion for an impromptu Critical
Play!

If you'd like to learn more about Castellan, check out their BGG page here!

I'm a big believer that we are a community in the board game and table top gaming world. One big giant community, and
communities help each other! I'm also a big believer in second opinions. Whenever I make a big decision, I consult a few people I trust. I know we have similar thoughts, ideologies
and concerns, so I take their advice seriously and with merit. The same can be said for board game reviewers; that we all could use a second opinion from trusted sources!

It's with that thought that I'm happy to introduce a new series, "The Crit List". We're going to be doing monthly series of
"Top X" and this first time out, we're looking at the top 3 sites (for board game reviews) that you may not know about. These are up and coming reviewers who all have passion and focus, and
I personally think you may enjoy.

These are just three of some of the many reviewers out there! Where do you go for your reviews, besides Crits Happen of
course? Who do you trust, opinion wise, and why? Let us know by commenting below, or joining in the discussion on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus!

I love Dystopian and Steampunk themes. They are two of my favorite genres that I feel provide amazing and imaginary
settings for fun and exciting games. Unfortunately, there's not many "great" dystopian and/or steampunk themed games.

Thankfully,Euphoria; Build a Better Dystopia, fromStonemaier Games, attempts, quite successfully, to remedy that! It's a world of tunneling through the underground bases of your enemies,
using markets to oppress others, and laying your authority in every area of the land you can! Grab your recruits, grab your artifacts, and let's jump into the world of Euphoria!

Today we're happy to bring you a Critical Preview for a rather unique and colorful game, Primary from Nosidam games. Primary just launched on Kickstarter and looks to take some simple
mechanics and provide an impact around the table that'll always be different and strategic!

At its core, Primary is a card game about staying "in the game", or "alive" longer than all the other players. Think of it like "last man standing". To stay alive, you have to be able
to play a card, or remove a token from one or more you have in play. Sounds simple right?

Whether you are looking for a new, slightly abstract game, or love card games with combos galore, Primary may be right up your alley!

Last year, Darrel Louder (of Unpub.net fame) brought us a set collection game
dripping with theme, vibrant with color, and took us all back to our days of Chemistry class! With the help of Dice Hate Me Games,
Darrell gave the world Compounded: Better Gaming Through Chemistry, a science themed game of set collection and
slight territory control that appeals to both straight A science nerds and the barely passing flunkies in the lab!

This time out, myself, Kraken Dan, and Eric Dow, the owner of Wonko's Toys and Games in Austin Texas, sit down for a 3 player
game of this elemental beauty in the hopes of having fun, and sharing with you, one of our favorite kickstarter successes! Grab your goggles, grab your Bunsen burners, and let's jump into
the world of Compounded!

I have enjoyed Hearthstone for quite some time now and look forward to the game coming out of Beta soon. It's nearly 100%
polished and provides a quick fix to a TCG/CCG player as well as some very strategic game moments that satisfy almost everyone I know who has played it.

Today I decided to film an Arena run, where we draft a 30 card random deck, after choosing one of three heroes, and then you
enter into battles against random online opponents in the hope of gaining riches and spoils.

While I can't guarantee riches and spoils, I can provide you insight into my latest Arena run... stay tuned, as we update more
games, we'll post them here! Don't forget to tell us what you think of our choices and (potentially really bad) plays!

Over the next few months, we'll be changing some things here at Crits Happen; one of which is our Critical Reviews are going to become a new series of videos known as "Critiques". The first
of which is about one of our favorite new games... Rampage! Remember, below, you can cast your vote for a Crit, Hit or Miss rating for Rampage as well!

Rampage is yet another simple and yet beautiful game from Antoine Bauza! You may remember last we spoke about Antoine, we were hauling a gigantic Takenoko set home from Gen Con. This
time around is a city smashing, meeple eating, car tossing good time inside Rampage! It's your job to take on the role of a Monster, thrash the city, chow down on unsuspecting (or who
knows, maybe some oft-suspecting) meeples, and score more points than your opponents... just don't get your teeth knocked out!

I loved playing with two toys when I was a kid;Little Van Goesand theMighty Men
and Monster Maker! I would spend hours making new creations, putting things together, taking them apart, and recreating all afternoon. So, you can imagine my joy when I learned
about the main mechanic of character creation in Heroes Wanted, from Action Phase Games; Mix and match your cards to make a super hero! Color me in!

Travis Chance and Nick Little have put together a really fun adventure game, that is lighthearted but strategic, and even offers
elements for solo and party play! It's time to immerse yourself inside Zeta City, where everyone wants to be a hero, but only the mightiest (or beard-iest?!) will survive!

5th Street Games is known for some seriously fun games with comical themes, and their latest introduction to Kickstarter, Mob
Town, grounds itself in both those areas. Based on area control with resource management and objective based rewards, Mob Town is sure to please strategic gamers, family gamers, and those
in between.

Mob Town isn't even “a” town, rather, it is several, as each round in the game is going to see you building a new city out of a
clever mechanic that ensures your towns are always different. From there, it's up to you, or your opponents, to use the rival gangs to secure locations for themselves, scoring the most
victory points.

It’s every Snake, Shark, Weasel, Fox, and Rat for himself, or herself, in this world! Do you have what it takes to score
the most points before the Law comes crashing down on you?